New York Humane Lobby Day '09Image by heypatrickOver 100 members and supporters of The Humane Society of the United States joined together on Mon, March 30th, 2009 in Albany for the New York State Humane Lobby Day.

The animal advocates met with 107 of the 212 state legislators on pending legislation to strengthen anti-dogfighting laws, prohibit the canned shoots of captive exotic animals, crack down on puppy mills, and press for the humane treatment of "downed" farmed animals who are too sick or injured to get up for slaughter.

The event was co-sponsored by the New York State Humane Association. Senator Frank Padavan and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal received humane legislators awards to commend their support and dedication to animal protection issues.

Giraffe at the Nashville ZooImage by super-structureWe spent Saturday afternoon at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Having now been to San Diego, we were really impressed with the Nashville Zoo. It's not as large, of course (though they have lots of expansion plans), but it is really nicely designed and maintained. The program we watched was a lot of fun. It contained an interesting mix of exotic animals as well as local fauna.